The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post here if you want to check out other posts. I’ve been reading less than I’d like this week, because my exams are upon me and I’m really having to put my nose to the grindstone to just learn the last bits that won’t stick in my head. Mind you, I had my human biology exam yesterday, and that was really easy. So here’s hoping it continues that way!
What are you reading now?
I’m halfway through NeuroTribes, by Scott Silberman. On the one hand, I’ve heard good things about it, but on the other I’m a little put off by the fact that there was a whole chapter focused on how hard having an autistic child was for two particular parents, and how they put him through all sorts of nonsense therapies in the hopes of fixing him. Sure, they eventually decided to accept him as he was, but the whole thing was just focused on their experience, their “anguish”, etc, etc. What about this poor kid who got forcefed food he didn’t like and ridiculous supplements, to try to make him into a different child altogether? I’m more worried about him, thanks.
I know Silberman does actually go on to talk about accepting neurodiversity, accommodating autism rather than stigmatising people who have it, but that chapter did put me off rather.
(Note: I’m not on the spectrum, so take my opinion with a pinch of salt.)
Fiction-wise, I’m reading Marie Brennan’s new novella, Lightning in the Blood. I should really finish it today, but… studying.
What have you recently finished reading?
I just finished Death on Earth, by Jules Howard. It was interesting enough, but it really skims the surface. It hinted at the same things as The Worm at the Core, for example, but pulled back from it. And in terms of biological death… I don’t know any more than I did going in.
The last fiction book I finished was Shanghai Sparrow, which is fun but nothing special — fairly typically steampunky, with some fairies thrown in.
What will you read next?
I should read one of my book club choices, so either Robin Hobb’s Farseers trilogy, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, or The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard. Technically all of these need finishing by the end of this month, so I should, you know. Get to it.
But then there’s also library books I need to read before I go back to Belgium again, because of course I raided the libraries here. So maybe I’ll read The Shambling Guide to New York, by Mur Lafferty.
So in the SF show Eureka, there was an autistic kid and I thought, ooh! This is good! Then it went on to not only focus on how his mother was “missing out” on a relationship with her son and how she’d prefer him to be neurotypical but to actually turn him into a neurotypical kid later in the series. Was I infuriated? Yes I was!
Also, have you ever had a professional autism diagnostic assessment? Maybe you ARE autistic! 😉
Ugh, that’s so annoying.
I have not! I do have some stereotypically associated traits (avoidance of eye contact, preferring routines, sensory overload, stimming) but no official assessment. Mum is a psychiatrist and says “no chance”, but my dad and maybe sister are very likely on the spectrum.
Synesthesia is also more common on the spectrum than in the general population. Of course, there’s the question of severity; one can have most of the relevant traits and still not get a diagnosis if they haven’t caused “significant lifelong impairment.”
I actually remembered the synaesthesia association right after I posted that comment! Now I’m wondering if it’s genetic, though — if it is, I probably get it from my mother. My dad and sister are not synaesthetic at all.
Well, it’s almost certainly to do with brain structure. Exactly how much of brain variation is genetic or epigenetic seems not to be fully understood but you probably know more about it than I.
I absolutely agree with your impressions so far on the Silberman book. Yes, it made its points about how awfully kids with ASD were treated in the past (and, I suspect, still are) but it felt too much, too detailed, too inexorable, and it held up the thrust of his narrative. I thought his own response to my review (http://wp.me/p2oNj1-27H) quite measured but still entirely missed the point I was making about what I called ‘case histories’ being too long.
Still, the sense that many on the spectrum (at least in the States — no idea about much of the rest of the world) are now finally “doing it for themselves” and self-advocating was a more positive ending. It remains to be seen though whether Trump’s adherence to vaccination-causes-autism bandwagon will set any recent progress back several years if not decades.
Yeah, I felt totally bogged down in details. With the subtitle “How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently”, I’d expected more on that and not most of the book being “The Legacy of Autism” — and sometimes not even the legacy of autism, but stuff related to people who were related to autism research. Some of it felt unnecessary.
I’m glad the human biology exam went well. Fingers crossed that you get the results you are looking for. As I write the election is over but with a hung parliament we’re not going to get much respite from the coverage. Gah, I just want it to go away for a while!!!
Thanks! Here’s hoping.
Not really the election result I wanted, I have to say!